S-Band Uplink 5 MHz Shift Would Cause Interference, Dish Says

Sprint Nextel, the company satellite lawyers said would be most affected by Dish’s forthcoming wireless service because it would sit close to frequencies the carrier hopes to use for LTE, continues to seek an uplink shift in filings in docket 12-70 (http://xrl.us/bnqbz8). Dish doesn’t want its uplink, now at 2000 to 2020 MHz, to be shifted to 2005 to 2025 MHz, and some nonprofits and an industry association also raised interference concerns. Representatives of the commission, Dish and Sprint had no comment for this story.

Dish’s study by wireless engineer Doug Hyslop said there’s no practical way to protect the company’s base stations housing wireless antennas and sitting atop towers from “high-power” interference from government and industry uses. Dish executives met last week with staff from the International and Wireless bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology to discuss the study (CD Sept 18 p17), posted in the docket Tuesday. Broadcast auxiliary services (BAS) that send news footage from camera crews in the field to TV stations, and government transmitters communicating with space vehicles use frequencies between 2025 and 2110 MHz, said the study (http://xrl.us/bnqb3b). Hyslop, who used to work for Sprint, now works for Wireless Strategy, a consultant to carriers.

Part of the dispute between Dish and Sprint is over what happens to the H block at 1995 to 2000 MHz, which sits just above the spectrum the carrier’s using for LTE, satellite industry lawyers said. The February spectrum law requires the FCC to auction that block, unless the agency determines there’s harmful interference from the block to PCS spectrum, an industry official said. Sprint’s concerned about Dish’s spectrum interfering with the H block and hindering the use of mobile broadband there, industry officials said and FCC filings show.

"Of the limited spectrum available for broadband use, only the PCS H Block at 1915-1920 MHz and 1995-2000 MHz is entirely cleared of incumbents, paired as expansion spectrum with the core PCS band, and available for immediate wireless broadband use,” Sprint Nextel said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnqb4k). Sprint said it “values the H Block as LTE expansion spectrum and intends to bid for geographic area licenses once the Commission auctions the spectrum as directed by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.” The carrier supports letting Dish use its spectrum for terrestrial broadband, which “must not come at the cost of idling the valuable H block spectrum,” said the disclosure of a meeting where the carrier’s executives met with officials from the Wireless and International bureaus and OET. “The Commission should not permit DISH Network to cast emissions from its MSS spectrum into the adjacent-channel H Block in a manner that impairs use of the H Block for mobile broadband.”

The rulemaking notice on Dish’s 2 GHz spectrum proposed using Dish’s 2000-2020 MHz spectrum as an uplink and the company’s 2180-2200 MHz frequencies as a downlink (http://xrl.us/bnqb5j). It also sought “comment on two alternative possibilities” including shifting the uplink up 5 MHz. Foes of such a shift including the Computer & Communications Industry Association, with members including Dish, and a group of nonprofits have spoken in recent weeks with FCC officials, ex parte filings show. “Potential future interference issues relating to the 2 GHz spectrum currently licensed” to Dish “and the H Block will eventually require resolution,” CCIA executives told officials Sept. 7 of the International and Wireless bureaus and OET, a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnqb6c). “Forcing DISH to move in a 5 MHz upward shift now would require a total ‘do-over’ of the standards setting process already successfully completed, causing substantial further delay in the deployment process and other adverse unintended consequences.”

With more than 100,000 BAS radios in the U.S., Dish’s interference study said it would be impractical for the company to predict where interference would occur in placing towers. Newsgathering trucks using mobile electronic newsgathering “may be set up anywhere within a market, posing an interference risk which cannot be anticipated and planned around,” Hyslop wrote. “Mobile ENG transmitters cannot be coordinated with DISH base stations.” Government space operations communicating with earth stations meanwhile mean “significant” energy “may be present at an S Band station receiver,” the engineer wrote. “A similar receiver blocking concern as BAS would result for an S Band station attempting to receive in the 2020-2025 MHz block.”

Moving the S-band uplink is “more likely to harm than to serve the public interest,” a group of four nonprofits reported (http://xrl.us/bnqb7m) saying Aug. 27 in response to questions from FCC Chief of Staff Zac Katz, and Renee Wentzler, an aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski. “Relocating the band will cause potentially extensive delay in the buildout and market entry of a new competitive wireless service provider, thereby undermining the Commission’s justification for awarding terrestrial broadband rights without an auction.” The “benefits of adding 5 MHz to future H Band auction appear remote and hypothetical in comparison to the immediate delay and possible loss of a market entrant,” said the coalition. Members include Consumers Union, Free Press, New America Foundation and Public Knowledge.